BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Black Bear Sports Group To Start New League

[Guest]

Problem is that the DVHL doesn't allow you to move without penalizing with playoff eligibility. There are plenty of teams at our club that belong in a higher division but are stuck blowing out teams and hoping for better competition at tournaments.

I know they penalize you if you petition to play down a level with not being playoff eligible. Never heard of a team being penalized for going up a level. Who was penalized for playing up? 

[Guest]

To the best of my knowledge they don't let you change once the season starts.

[Guest]

Problem is that the DVHL doesn't allow you to move without penalizing with playoff eligibility. There are plenty of teams at our club that belong in a higher division but are stuck blowing out teams and hoping for better competition at tournaments.

I know they penalize you if you petition to play down a level with not being playoff eligible. Never heard of a team being penalized for going up a level. Who was penalized for playing up? 

I could be wrong, but for the AA division, you can only have 1 National bound team. At some point, I assume before the season starts, you have to declare which one that would be. Not sure how it works for A and B where there is only a District champion. I'm pretty sure I recall my sons team being in an A National DVHL playoff where there were 2 teams from the same club in the bracket.
 

[Guest]

When is black bear going to announce the formation of their tier1 program? Do they intend on working on taking out the ayhl by incorporating independently run organizations with reputable tier1 sanctioned clubs? Thats what I'm hearing.

[Guest]

If only a few more teams go to AH it won't be if DV and NJ merge they will have to merge because they are quickly running out of teams.

Ya, I was just looking at it. DVHL is down to 14 clubs, a few which like Central Penn, Delaware Stars, Rizzo and Pottstown who only field a handful of teams. This is the beginning of the end for both leagues. In 2-3 years it will just be the AHF. Maybe it will be better, who knows. No league is perfect. I still worry about it being run by a for-profit company that owns half the teams/rinks in the league.
 

It's going to be sooner than that.  The AHF has picked up pretty much all of the larger clubs outside of the Phantoms, Genesis, Kings, Cougars and the Quakers at this point. 

[Guest]

Our organization had their first meeting with officers of the AHF. They say the right things and it sounded good. Lets just hope they can actually do what they say, time will tell. Some parents came out of it feeling ok and others say they are looking to go to a club staying in the DVHL. I think the clubs that close to clubs going AHF will see an increase at evals.

[Guest]

Obviously you didn't read the brochure they put out, LOL

[Guest]

The Atlantic District has released a word salad of a memo that, among other things, says the following (taken from the DVHL homepage):

"The Affiliate wants to be clear for all of its approved Tier II Clubs and their teams; the AAHA has an obligation to provide a pathway for its qualified Tier II teams to advance to Districts and Nationals, irrespective of the League(s) the teams participate in. For Tier II, advancement to Districts has been almost exclusively based upon the schedule and results of games played within either the DVHL or NJYHL, with minor exception, and that process will continue."

Does that mean that the AHF clubs are or are not "approved" or "qualified" for Districts and Nationals?

[Guest]

So under the AAHA Rules and Regulations, Article VII(A)(a)(i), a league is only eligible for sanctioning if it is "registered under the laws of its state of residence as a non-profit corporation." The AHF is registered in Delaware as a limited liability company, so it would appear that the AHF is ineligible for league sanctioning by the affiliate. That said, I don't know much other than how to google....so take that with a grain of salt.

Also, as the parent of kids that play hockey, I could give a rat's rearend about whether their teams are eligible. My son's always played for ice dogs/genesis and never even made the darn playoffs...so one step at a time 

[Guest]

Sanctioning doesn't matter.  The letter is clear:  the AAHA has an obligation to provide a pathway for its qualified Tier II teams to advance to Districts and nationals, irrespective of the League (s) the teams participate in.

Teams in the AHF can be national bound